I'm a firm believer that all internet users should have full control of all of their own content. I think they should be able to edit their posts or remove them at any time.

The quote function can serve as a method to retain the integrity of the thread should the member decide to delete or edit his or her post.

Unfortunately, phpBB does not allow a user (who is not a moderator) to remove their own posts after someone has replied because the developers developed the code this way thinking this would help maintain the integrity of threads.

That makes sense on SOME level, but not on the most important level.

The most important level is that (as I just said), every internet user should have control of their own posts and own content, in my opinion.

Keeping the editing feature intact for all users all the time would be the best idea. That way users retain control of their own content and even though the phpBB software does not allow deletion of their own posts after someone has replied, they would then be able to edit their own posts to read DELETED BY MEMBER or dot dot dot if they want.

I like the way it works on Facebook. Zuckerberg allows all members to delete any content they want on their own page at any time. They are also allowed to remove their own membership from FB if they decide they want to leave.

This is as it should be. He's a smart guy, Zuckerberg. One out of thirteen people in the WORLD use FB. It's HUGE. One reason is because people have full control of their own content. That's not possible with the phpBB software (to allow users to delete their own membership) but I hope it will be in future versions. That's sort of a tangent. Sorry. The point is that users should have as much control of their own content as possible. This is respectful to the user/member who may change his or her mind about what they posted for any number or reasons!

Just one example, for instance - Let's say a member has posted a poem which he or she decides to submit to a magazine which doesn't accept any poetry submissions which have been posted on the internet. This happens! The user/member should be able to remove his or her poems from whatever site they're posted to meet the submission requirements.

What Doreen said but I’d already written this so I may as well post it – please ignore any overlaps

The big disadvantage of increasing the edit time is that if a post in a thread is heavily edited or deleted, it may make it hard to follow the remainder of the thread.

The ‘quote’ functionality was, in part, built into the software to negate that specific disadvantage.

I think anyone who wants to edit a post for whatever reason should have the ability to do so, blocking that ability after a week because some threads might be ‘hard to follow’ is, in my opinion, nonsensical – why is it fine and dandy for seven days but verboten thereafter?

That’s a rhetorical question, I already know the answer - if you can edit your post you can delete every poem you’ve ever posted which is the real reason you only allow a week for editing, it’s just damage limitation. To the owner of a poetry site giving the author the ability to control where and when a poem is published is generally seen as a bad thing. Given that success on such sites is generally measured by the quantity and quality of the posts that isn’t really surprising, while it’s not much of an issue if one person deletes 60 or 70 poems if 10 or more people do the same thing that’s potentially the whole site down the pan – it’s the Interweb equivalent to a run on a bank.

So what do the members (the 99%) have to give up to pay for the advantage gained by the site owners (the 1%)?

The members have to give up ultimate control of where and when their work is published – that’s a big deal in a medium where a social site can suddenly change into a centre for pornographic or abusive content overnight. Personally I’d prefer to have the ability to disassociate (remove) my stuff from a site like that and, I’d have thought, giving me the ability and responsibility to do that makes perfect sense from a site administration point of view – as a matter of interest what do you do at present if someone requests that all their stuff is deleted?

I'll tell you what I do on my site when a person asks their account be deleted and all of their posts. I delete their account and all of their posts for them and wish them well and thank them for participating in the past and invite them to come back any time they want. (This has only happened about 3-4 times in the past 8 years, btw).

Why do I do that for them? Because it's the RIGHT thing to do. After all, their writing and their posts are THEIRS. I use the same software (phpBB) and I can't wait for the day when the developers add the function for a person to delete their own account and all of their own posts in one fell swoop if they want to. That's how it should be. Which reminds me... there MAY be a Mod out there that accomplishes this. I need to look into it.

Yes. All members have equal permissions to edit their posts on my site, unlimited, whenever they want.

As was mentioned above, the quote function serves as a thread protector in case posts disappear or get edited to say something contrary to what the member originally said. During political/social debates, for instance (sometimes we have them over there), the members often use the quote function to quote each other.

Yes, I have tried and failed to edit posts that wouldnt do it. Mainly because I hadn't read the rules on editing and figured out the hard way that there was some locking proceedure going on which I couldn't understand. I think it was to do with either altering a poem (most likely) or altering somehting I had said because the person I'd said it to hadn't replied and I wanted to better explain myself. Thinking about it I've tried to delete a poem, because it was crap, and been unable. I'm with the consensus here.

I've also tried to delete a couple poems which I later decided weren't written well enough to have posted and which have received zero replies and was unable to do so because the allotted time had past for editing. In addition, when posting a poem on another site, I realized I'd made a typo when I posted it here and wanted to edit it, but was unable to. Plus, at certain times, I want to revise my poems as they appear in public after revisiting them several months later and realizing certain edits may make them stronger pieces but have been unable to edit to "fix" them to improve the posted works. Recently, I posted an audio file I'd like to delete because it's a horrible recording. I deleted it from my soundcloud page but I can't delete it here, unfortunately. Nor can I edit it to remove the file and type "deleted by author because I decided the recording stinks and I should rerecord it."

Was waiting to get on a computer to comment yet after reading the comments already posted I'm not certain I can add anything that hasnt been stated. I agree we need to be able to make revisions, and hope the policy is altered in a way that allows for such yet continues to maintain the interests of others involved in threads. Indi

Went to the Haiku Tag thread and sought to edit a post, dated 12/18/12...it didn't offer the option to edit. Is there a different criteria for that thread, that forum ? Just something to look into. It has only been @48 hrs.